More From The Lapidary Shop

Like the rest of the world, we are self isolating way out here on Digby Neck with the hope that at some point in the future, "normal" will return and we will actually see some tourists.

I am fortunate to have a hobby (lapidary) to occupy the time and a large amount of rock to cut and polish.

As some of you may know, my wife Vickie, (She who MUST be obeyed) has The Agate Eye and it is because of that that I have such beautiful material to work with. Here is one she demanded be cut this morning and although it was a little big I decided to give it a try on my Hi-Tech 10 inch saw (you try saying no to her!). The results were spectacular! The surface is like glass and includes areas of plume, moss and fortification agate.

If you click on the pic you will see even more detail.

But because there have been no visitors, I have had time to cut a lot more and here are a few of the nicest.

The last one (greenish) is called eclogite and it is formed deep in the earth where one tectonic plate is dipping below another. As such, the pressure is so high that sometimes diamonds can be found associated with this rock.

If you click on the individual pictures you will be able to see even more detail.

I happen to live smack dab in the middle of an amazing geological setting and I hope that you can experience it for yourself sometime. In the meantime, stay safe and healthy!

Back in the (Lapidary) Saddle Again!

Well, I held out as long as I could.

My original plan was to wait on cutting until I had completely cleaned up the shop but Vickie had found some really interesting stuff recently and I had an itchy trigger finger so I put some oil in the small saw and voila!

Here's a great piece of agate with several different types.

We have some lovely examples of fortification (grey area at the top) and plume and there are some gorgeous little islets in the center.

This next piece is a great example of a stone that didn't look all that good on the outside but on the inside...

Gorgeous areas of fortification and plume- what some would call our local moss agate. The patterning and colours are very organic and I have cut one slice and plan on getting a few more. These will make some beautiful small pendants.

So now I guess I have to get the big saw going so we can get at some of her larger pieces. Stay tuned for more interesting materials in subsequent posts.

Life on Digby Neck

Every summer (well maybe not THIS summer) we get tourists stopping by and saying how much they would love to live here. Well, we sure love living on Digby Neck but it isn't without its challenges. Take yesterday for example. It started raining softly mid afternoon and the winds slowly picked up. After supper, Vickie checked Windy, her weather app, and casually informed me that the winds we had expected to peak at about 90 KPH were now projected to get to 110! So by about 10 PM the winds were roaring off the bay across the street and it was like someone was hitting the front of the house with a firehose. Amazingly, the power was still on.

We went to bed (our bedroom is at the front of the house) but the noise made sleeping impossible. And besides, by now the whole house was shaking and moaning (it is, remember, over 170 years old!). So we decided to move to the back bedroom. The sound was a little less but the shaking was even worse. It as like a freight train was running in the room with us. So we went downstairs to the main floor expecting it to be better but there is a vent in the kitchen that was clanging so we climbed back upstairs and ended up in the TV room. By now it's about 1 am and the wind gusts are over 120 but amazingly, I fall asleep. And when I wake up around 4, an eerie quiet has descended on the house (what I imagine the old cone of silence might have been like). We go back to sleep and wake up to a sky that looks like this

.

Amazingly,the house is still standing and we didn't even lose any more shingles and it is supposed to be sunny and +14 by the afternoon. Welcome to Digby Neck!

But not to worry, spring is definitely in the air. The Great Blue Herons are back in the marsh.

And if we can ever put this virus in our rear view windows, maybe we'll get to see you this summer.

Stay healthy.

The Spring of Covid 19

Well, we sure didn't see THAT coming!

Like most of the rest of the world, we have been self isolating. It was a little easier for us because I had my second hip replaced on Feb. 24th and because I had a nasty post op staph infection after #1, I had been told to stay away from people for a while and since I was using a walker, visits to town weren't an issue.

Then we started hearing reports of the effects of the corona virus and it became obvious that this spring would not be "Business as Usual".

On the hip front, things have been going great. Thanks to my loving wife (A.K.A. Nurse Ratchet") I did my rehab faithfully and I hope to be fully cleared to get back to normal activities when I meet with the surgeon by telephone later this week.

That means that I will be able to get back to doing lapidary in my shop!

As per normal here in Nova Scotia, early spring lingers because of the icebergs and cold water temperatures but the weather is slowly improving and Vickie (she with the agate eye) has been able to do a bit of rockhounding. here is her latest find.

This is a great specimen of Bay of Fundy flame agate and I can't wait to cut and polish a face.

But that's not the only thing she has been up to. When you are married to a mixed media artist, you come to realize that, somewhere in your house, there is one of everything! Vickie uses pieces of her art, combined with 50+ years of accumulated "stuff" to create art books and here's her latest.

The little blond in the last pic is the artist herself as a (very) young girl growing up in Norwayand when I look at it I am very jealous of that little boy.

So what happens now?

At some point, life will gradually return to "normal" but what that normal is remains to be seen. The Fundy tides will still come in and go out like clockwork but I suspect many other things will change forever.

Our shop may or may not even open this summer. I doubt we will see many tourists, that's for sure! At the time of this writing, we are still shipping our famous Seawall Fibres hand dyed yarn all over the world and I am selling some jewelry through the Seawall Fibres web site. I will probably put more pieces on the site in the near future.

Digby, and Digby Neck will dearly miss the tourists. For many, the reason will be economic and while that will be a factor here as well, what I will miss most of all is meeting all the wonderfully interesting people from all over the world who pass through our doors- many who have become friends.

If you had hoped or planned to visit us this summer, don't cross us off your list. When you come to Digby Neck- the most interesting part of the most beautiful province in the most beautiful country in the world- you won't be disappointed! And I guarantee that you will leave with memories that will last a lifetime (and possibly a piece from our shop!).

Stay safe. Stay healthy. Let's beat this thing and put it in the rear view mirrors of our lives.
And let's count our blessings.

Welcome to "The Roaring 20's" !

OK so I jumped the gun. There are still a few hours left in this tired decade but what the heck!

For me personally, the "teens" have ended well.

Last night, my Florida Gators won their football bowl game vs. Virginia and now I look forward to following their basketball team. Go Gators!

Last weekend, we drove to Dartmouth to see daughter Sandra and her family and also old friends visiting from Ontario. Sandra and Vickie saw "Cats" and, contrary to the reviews, absolutely LOVED it. So much for critic reviews.

And of course, no Boxing Day (27th here) would be complete without an amazing lobster feast!

That's son-in-law Sean "guarding" them! In all, Vickie and Sandra cooked and cut in half 26 1.5 pound lobsters in one hour and 50 minutes! I'm pretty sure that that is a world record. Even the drive through the beautiful Annapolis Valley was fun- especially with a sky like this!

Not too shabby, huh?

Meantime, our other daughter and her family were enjoying their weather in Freeport, Grand Bahama, where life is slowly returning to normal after Hurricane Dorion.

I am supposed to get my second bionic hip on Feb. 24th. It's a Monday so I hope they don't make hips like they make cars! The timing is good as I should be ready to go when it's time to open the shop in the spring.

I was involved in a very interesting test project for Hi-Tech (lapidary products) and have just sent in my results. If you are interested in lapidary, watch this space as I may be able to let you in on it at some point.

Cheers and best to all!

The Fish Are Getting Larger!

With the cooler weather, the focus around The Artist's Mark has shifted inside to the art and jewelry studios. And while our shop sign is now sitting on the ground, if the sign says "Open" come on in. We plan on being open, at least on weekends, to the end of the year.

Currently, we are doing a bit of a renovation in the art area, but Vickie has been painting up a storm. As discussed in a previous post, her current fascination is the interaction of ink and watercolour. And her focus has been on creating "Fundy Fish", whimsical creations that highlight just how "special" this area is.

She started small but as the creations flew off the shelf, her focus has shifted to seeing if the idea could be executed in a larger format. So now she has moved to an image that fits into a 5"x 7" frame.

By the way, the above is shown in a "Ribba" frame by Ikea. Online reviews of these have been a little spotty but we really like them and find them very good value. Who knows how large these fish can grow to become. Lobster season starts here on Monday so with them gone, these fish might get huge!

And speaking of Ikea, they make another line of frames called "Hovsta" which we also like. here's another of Vickie's latest works shown in this frame.

We hope to be able to offer these pieces online at some point and if that becomes possible, we'll let you know.

And by the way, I have been asked to participate in an exciting lapidary product trial so stay tuned for further developments!

Cheers!

We Have Fish!

In previous posts, I have chronicled the ongoing scientifically experimental nature of my better half- She Who MUST Be Obeyed. Its most recent manifestation is ink- homemade ink and also how ink could interact with watercolours and other materials in her artwork.

She started by simply putting the two together on different papers using different brushes without paying much attention to shapes and colours but in the process, a fascinating shape started to emerge.

FISH!

But Vickie doesn't see fish the way most do. She is fascinated by things like steampunk and whimsy and a mark making process called "zentangles" that has led to her producing images that have even been put on t shirts.

So her fish eventually morphed into...FUNDY FISH... fish that morphed into hybrid creatures with unique personalities.

She started small (about 4 inches x 6 inches)

But gradually, they got larger.

These are two to three times larger and now she is making them in all sizes and colours. So now the question is, how big can she go. Some of Vickie's pieces are very large 4 feet by 3 feet so should she make them larger still?

With no real promotion, we have sold many of them and since, eventually we will be offering these via the Seawall Fibres web site, we now have to take a trip to Halifax to source larger mats and watercolour sheets. She even has to get bigger brushes! And I have to crack the whip to make sure I have inventory!

I have successfully co-opted the cats in this endeavour because apparently, they also really like fish!

So stay tuned and, if you like them, let us know and also let us know if you think they would look good in a larger size. For your information, Vickie is a signature member of the Federation of Canadian Artists and we sell her work by size- $2.25 Canadian per square inch of image size so since these have a lot of white space, the price is reasonable and they fit in standard sized frames.

We want your feedback!

Cheers.